Tsutsujigaoka Country Club Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture

Designed by Mr. Katsumi Takizawa in 1991, Tsutsujigaoka Country Club is an 18-hole, 6,670-yard par-72 offering an interesting challenge for all levels of golfer. The course layout is quite unique given the local topography; each hole winding around hills or set in valleys, at times the fairways can be narrow so a strategy needs to be applied to each hole. 

Tech Savvy!: This course features remote control carts- but it is possible to walk the course, amazingly made possible by a number of gondolas and travelators helping to get to the elevated tees and from one hole to the next- which ads to the uniqueness and enjoyability.

Play through: Possible during weekday rounds, not on weekends. An extra nine is also possible if daylight permits and recomended is the early bird tee times in summer which see 18 holes played before 9am!- a rarity in Japan. 

Practice facilities consist of two putting greens and a chip-on green, there are no full swing practice facilities other than the course itself.
 

Featured Hole #1 'Risk & Reward', Par 5, 546 yards 

The front 9 starts at the elevated 1st tee gives a beautiful panorama of the area and frames this beautiful and short par 5, on the right of the ample fairway is a river leading into a larger body of water, which the fairway follows around making a right dog-leg.  From the tee all is needed is 250 yards to set up next to the water, leaving about 210 yards to a large green, beware the second shot can be quite nerve racking particularly if the wind is up and many a players of all handicaps dreaming of easy eagles and birdies have been fooled- Including this one! A more sensible play (particularly if your drive went left of the tee) is to lay up to the side of the water for a 120 yard approach.

Most of the front 9 holes are hemmed by beautiful forests and mountains on all sides which gives a very private feeling, many holes with exposed crags on the mountainside high above the greens glowing in the Japanese sunshine. The greens are all quite large and receptive, not to quick- but true. The ‘Tsutsuji’ in Tsutsujigaoka means Azalea, and the club certainly lives up to that name with over 30 varieties on the course, one particular planting is over 300 years old, depending on the time of year the course will be bathed in the pinks and whites of this bloom (April-May).

The Tsutsujigaoka clubhouse is quite oppulant, after a long tree lined and manacured driveway, visitors are greeted with an oppulant clubhouse, high doors and sloped roof give way to a tiled open planned reception area bursting with natural light. The colossal 4,530 m2 building has a members private lounge, relaxation center, restaurant, private rooms and outdoor garden. 

The mens and ladies dressing rooms have been recently refurbished and feature private showers, sauna, jet-stream baths, plunge pool, all overlooking an equisite Japanese garden.